Robert Zoellick

Robert Zoellick

Polymath Zoellick ­believes the seemingly endless financial crisis has damaged rich countries' "authority and prestige" when it comes to dispensing economic advice to the developing world.
2011 Lowlight: Suggested this spring that the World Bank should take a direct political role in some poor countries, contrary to the letter and spirit of the bank's charter.

NEWSWORTHY

Investors considering a purchase of American Public Education Inc (NASD: APEI) shares, but tentative about paying the going market price of $39.97/share, might benefit from considering selling puts among the alternative strategies at their disposal. One interesting put contract in particular, is the December put at the $35 strike, which has a read »

In trading on Monday, shares of NII Holdings Inc. (NASD: NIHD) crossed above their 200 day moving average of $6.46, changing hands as high as $6.60 per share. NII Holdings Inc. shares are currently trading up about 1.7% on the day. The chart below shows the one year performance of NIHD shares, versus its 200 day moving average:

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) recently announced a new partnership with Strayer@Work, Strayer Education’s newest business division to offer no-cost, no-debt, college degrees to its dealership employees. This story caught my attention because I know personally know what it’s like to fund one’s own college degree from a private read »

Like every automaker in the U.S. market these days, Fiat Chrysler is demanding more of its dealers: more physical investment in their showrooms, for one thing. And maybe more important, Fiat Chrysler wants more informed and capable employees, and better training and education to help them get that way. The need for dealerships to do a much read »

Just a few weeks ago, it was declared that a great pent-up demand for mergers and acquisitions among health insurers would unleash itself as a result of Obamacare’s confirmation by the Supreme Court. And so it did, for a while at least. Today, the consolidation seems less sure.

The U.S. Supreme Court saved Obamacare from having to operate as written, but the landmark decision in King v Burwell should not deter those on the right side of things from focusing on making health insurance (and more importantly health care) more affordable for more Americans.

During 2014, stock exchange-listed real estate investment trusts (REITs) paid out approximately $42 billion in dividends, while public non-listed REITs paid out approximately $4 billion in dividends. With the Federal Reserve likely to boost interest rates at its next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting next week, there has been growing read »

The best performing sector as of midday Monday is the Services sector, up 0.1%. Within the sector, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc (NYSE: HOT) and GameStop Corp (NYSE: GME) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 7.8% and 3.8%, respectively. Among the largest ETFs, one ETF closely following services stocks is the read »

, publisher of USA Today and dozens of other regional newspapers, is offering to buy Tribune Publishing, owner of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, in an effort to consolidate brands and drive cost savings that can improve the financial standing of print and digital newsrooms nationwide.

Daylight – A Win-Win-Win in Business – Late yesterday afternoon, Fox News announced Trump accepted its offer to do a sit-down interview with Megyn Kelly on her inaugural primetime show set to air May 17. Fox was smart to use the Morning Report as leverage to get Trump to the read »

Daylight – Do You Want to Play House – If we set aside the dueling press releases and actually read documents, there is a lot to learn from this nasty cat fight between Entrepreneur Bill Pulte and the Pulte Board. The Board blasted Pulte for putting the company at risk with all his read »

The iShares Mortgage Real Estate Capped ETF (REM) is seeing unusually high volume in afternoon trading Friday, with over 3.8 million shares traded versus three month average volume of about 984,000. Shares of REM were up about 1.2% on the day.

Components of that ETF with the highest volume on Friday were Annaly Capital Management (NLY), read »

Weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is the weighted average of the costs of all external funding sources for a company.

WACC plays a key role in our economic earnings calculation. It is hard to be 100% certain about the exact cost of a company’s capital. Our guiding principle when calculating WACC is that it is better to be vaguely read »